Steam Plant Square in the News

Fit Community Plans for future
Spokane stands on the threshold of area-wide renewal.

 

The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington/Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Sunday, April 12, 1998
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In 1889, fire swept through Spokane. The hardy pioneers rallied and rebuilt the town. During the early 1970s, the city tore up its gritty railroad yards and built a world's fair, a park, an opera house, and a new downtown retail center. On the threshold of a new century, the community is renovating itself again.

Each time, struggle preceded renewal: The fire. Doubts about a world's fair. The search for financing and a small-minded, corrosive political climate.
Each time, the community's better instincts won the day, thanks to determination and leadership by scores of residents who too often go unheralded

Consider Gib Brumback, for example. He's a soccer dad, coach for a few children's teams in the Spokane Valley. He grew dissatisfied with the shortage of sports facilities. He also happens to be a real estate developer who knows how to make things happen. Working with county officials, he zeroed in on a 70- acre site at Plantes Ferry Park.

Today, construction and fund-raising are under way for a facility that eventually will boast 14 soccer fields and five softball fields. For thousands of families, this will become a huge asset to daily life in the Spokane Valley.

All over our metropolitan area, work is under way on a series of projects whose collective impact and strategic importance are simply staggering.

  • Gonzaga University plans to construct an $18.5 million law-school building plus a new south entrance to its campus, on land now occupied by the Postal Service's terminal annex.
  • The Postal Service this summer begins construction of a huge, $41 million processing center near Spokane International Airport.
  • With the voters' blessing, Spokane School District 81 is preparing a $74.5 million renovation program including new classroom computers and the remodeling of historic Lewis and Clark High School.
  • The Legislature has provided funds to help build a new freeway interchange at Evergreen in the Valley. This opens the door to expansion of the new Valley mall and a new explosion of big-box stores. Also in the Valley, expansion begins this year on the freeway interchange at Sprague.
  • Downtown, workers are preparing the site for the $110 million river Park Square project.
  • Whitworth College is completing a $5 million expansion of its student union building and preparing for a $2.4 million renovation of its science facilities.
  • NorthTown has announced a $54 million expansion.
  • This summer, construction may begin on a $5 million YMCA in the Valley, the first piece in a $33 million civic center complex at Mirabeau Point.
  • The Spokane Airport is planning a $20 million concourse expansion and a $6 million hotel.
  • The Davenport Hotel hopes soon to commence its $20 million renovation, a long-anticipated boon to the visitor's trade, downtown vigor and historic preservation.
  • Nearby, the Hotel Lusso has opened, Steam Plant Square is under construction, the Chamber of Commerce is building new quarters and the old Carlyle Hotel is being converted into assisted-living apartments for the elderly and poor.
  • On the north bank of the Spokane River, Metropolitan Mortgage is preparing ground for as yet unspecified development west of Monroe.
  • Planning's under way for a $14 million Cheney Cowles Museum expansion, a $29 million Health Sciences Building at Riverpoint and a $70 million convention center expansion.
  • Smaller projects, too numerous to name, are creating new retail, office, condominium, apartment and retirement facilities.

There's more. There always is, in a healthy community with its eyes fixed confidently on the future.

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